My friend and I have come to realize that the most powerful knight in this game is the new Sir Percival, Sir Geraint, because he is the only knight in this game that can in fact beat the game alone without any help from the other knights, in fact if they did help they would only hinder him. Allow me to explain.

In this example we are going to have three players and assume that all the knights are loyal, because having a single traitor would ruin the experiment and if everyone truly was loyal, then there would be no reason not to allow Sir Geraint to do this.

The game starts and everyone is dealt his starting cards, if any knight aside from Geraint has heroism, divine favor, dragon slayer or merlin to the rescue, offer it up at the start to ensure that he has the cards, using the king to to get any of those cards that might be left to him.

Sir Geraint will then start off by discarding two cards and drawing two cards, it does not matter what you discard, you can even discard the special cards you were given because you will get them back later. The other two loyal knights will wander about Camelot until one of them gets captured. Never rescue this knight, he has been captured for the good of Camelot. The remaining knight will kill himself because his presence will just make it possible for evil to win.

Now that the the other knights have been taken care of removing the one card that can stop you from winning the game for good you can begin to win the game.

At this point a few black cards have been played, if any black knight cards have ever been drawn an played make sure they were played face up so that Geraint will know exactly what cards he has to play to win the quest the first time. (If your knights are really loyal and lucky they would spend a life to advance evil while walking around looking to get captured so that no black cards are ever played.) Draw through the white deck, discarding white cards instead of progressing evil till you get merlin to the recuse. Play that card and continue going through the deck. At this point you are still in Camelot drawing and discarding, netting one card since merlin is in Camelot. (I think Merlin can go to Camelot no matter this can still be done without him.) Do this until you have 13 cards in your hand. (Draw to 12 get one from Merlin.) If you want you can play dragon slayer and 16 cards in your hand.

Move to the black knight. You will have 14 cards since you discarded two at the start of the turn. Let any effect happen. Even charged is just going to add swords getting you to the end of the game faster. it takes 4 cards to beat the black knight. You will discard 8 over the course of 4 turns. You will beat the black knight and have two cards left. I failed to mention but you should play heroism on the black knight.

Return to Camelot. Draw then entire deck till you have the same cards (or reinforcements) and beat the black knight again. Repeat till you win, using divine favor to beat a tie with black swords.

Of course it is boring. You shouldn't really go about playing the game this way, I just wanted to say that it was in fact possible to do this. You could always of course use this strategy if you find yourself in this situation near the end of the game. A really bad game about to end in defeat can be brought to victory using this.

I like finding neat things one can pull off with the various knights powers. So far the only knight I just can't fathom having fun with is Bors.

Yeah, this is pretty boring, but it does bring up the point that Sir Geraint is the only knight that can actually hold serve directly with the forces of Evil. By discarding and drawing two cards per turn, Geraint has a zero-sum turn, which is impossible elsewhere. Playing and destroying a siege engine takes either Fight or Merlin cards out of your hand. Losing and gaining a life takes three cards out of your hand. Playing a black card and then killing it (with Merlin or a Grail over Despair) takes a card out of your hand. There is always a cost, except with Geraint. That's what makes this whole ridiculous exercise possible. I haven't picked up the expansion yet, but when I do, Geraint is getting modified to need two identical cards to replace his Progression of Evil.

A minor remark: I read in Bruno's FAQ that one needs to be actively fighting siege engines in order to be able to draw a card for Merlin being in Camelot. The rules confirm this. A knight has to be present at the same quest as Merlin, and Camelot without siege engines isn't a quest.

A minor remark: I read in Bruno's FAQ that one needs to be actively fighting siege engines in order to be able to draw a card for Merlin being in Camelot. The rules confirm this. A knight has to be present at the same quest as Merlin, and Camelot without siege engines isn't a quest.

I know I'm a bit late to this party, but I must point out that this is incorrect. The rules specifically say that Camelot is a quest. The rules do not say that Camelot is a quest only when siege engines are in play. The rules even go so far as to point out that Camelot is a quest with two distinct quest actions, only one of which is fighting siege engines.

Bruno's FAQ merely confirms that a knight can take advantage of Merlin's presence at Camelot while fighting siege engines (due to the fact that the siege engines are at Camelot). It doesn't say that siege engines must be present to use Merlin at Camelot, or that a knight must fight a siege engine to use Merlin.

So, this (as pointed out repeatedly) is an incredibly unexciting way to play, but kudos for figuring it out. I suppose you'll always have to play with loyalty cards and a potential traitor to keep you from utilizing this strategy. : )